New to Muzzle-loading

Hello all,

As the title says, I'm new to muzzle-loading. After 59 years of life I've ambled on over to this scene. I've had an inherited, Ardesa, Spain 50 cal flintlock as a wall-hanger for a decade. Friends and family have been bugging me to get out and shoot it for quite a while. Well, I began to pick up the needed accouterments for a range trip and found that it was not easy. A local dealer had much of what I needed but I decided to check out a gun show took some barter items with me. There wasn't a lot of muzzle-loading equipment present but before I was a quarter of the way through I came upon a used Thompson Center Renegade. It didn't take much dickering to strike a deal. Now I needed caps and more powder.

By the time I was a third of the way through the show I was out of barter materials, carrying the "new to me" Renegade and had a pocket full of "paper" evil just wanting to get out. So, I checked out the rest of the show. I spoke with an acquaintance and struck up a conversation or two with other show attendees. I couldn't find what I was looking for so I headed for the EVIL, Bass Pro Shops. (Is BPS a favored location on this board?) I'd received a couple BPS gift cards over the last year and thought I might be able to get some much needed items there. I was able to find several items and melt the gift cards but no powder. I bought their last tin of #11 caps.

I ended up back at one of the two local dealers who had the rest of the items I needed. Now I'm just waiting for the weekend to go and kill some paper. I've included a pic of the Ardesa and the Thompson Center. I've also got a left-handed, 50 cal Poor Boy (unknown manufacturer). I'm going to clean the PB up a bit and see if I can shoot southpaw.

GEdward

Welcome from South-Central Indiana

Welcome from East TN

Welcome from ND.

Welcome from Texas!

Welcome from New England.

@GEdward, welcome from East Central Missouri.

Flintlocks are indeed a real fun part of traditional muzzle loading. I hope that you have real black powder, Schuetzen or GOEX, as the substitute powders simply do not work well in flintlocks. Substitute powders will work in your T/C Renegade.

There are members of the Forum that live in southern Missouri. I do hope that you can find a mentor to get you started.

I'm new to the Forum also. Hello there.

Welcome from North Dakota

Welcome from Upstate New York's Central-Leatherstocking Region.

I have a .54 Renegade and I can tell you they are shooters. Solid percussion rifle for certain.

Welcome from Alberta.

Grenadier1758 said:

@GEdward, welcome from East Central Missouri.

Flintlocks are indeed a real fun part of traditional muzzle loading. I hope that you have real black powder, Schuetzen or GOEX, as the substitute powders simply do not work well in flintlocks. Substitute powders will work in your T/C Renegade.

There are members of the Forum that live in southern Missouri. I do hope that you can find a mentor to get you started.

Click to expand...

I picked up Schuetzen and Graf and Sons FFg and FFFFg for the flintlock along with FFFg and Hogdon Pyrodex RS for the percussion rifle. The one LGS owner gave me a lot of info and I'll likely rely on him and this forum for any questions.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone...

Another Howdy from Texas!

Welcome.

Welcome from the coast of North Carolina!

Welcome from Winchester, VA!

Welcome from the finger lakes region of NY! Don't forget to clean, dry, and oil those guns when you get home from the range!

I retired about seven years ago, at 51. While I was still on the job I was the guy who would work so others could go hunting. I made a couple extra bucks and got some jerky out of it. I had not hunted four legged animals since I was 17, even though Pa is great for white tails, among other critters. I'd heard and read that Mo was well known for hunting. To tell the truth, hunting isn't why we chose to move here. The cost of living and taxes were the reasons. That being said, once I began to see the amount of white tail and turkey in the area I got the itch. The fact that, unknown to us, my wife's cousin had been travelling down here to hunt for a few years.

Well the past few years were good for white tails. A neighbor has a lot of land that has been set up, solely, for hunting. The buck had been getting bigger every year. I've been happy with harvesting the cast offs. This past season things changed. My sweet little crossing dried up. I had people on all sides shooting and I saw absolutely nothing on my place in the time I had to hunt. I don't hunt archery so I thought I was done for the year until one day I took notice of my dad's old Ardesa setting against the fireplace. And that's how it began. I followed the instructions on the University of YouTube and cleaned it out. The rest is mentioned in my OP.

Things may work out for me or they may not. Even though I haven't pulled a charged trigger yet, I can't help but get that excited feeling we all feel when we find something new to us. I recall seeing my friends and co-workers getting excited about the "old style rifles". I kind of got it but I was disinterested. I like getting that "feels" again.

Here's hoping we don't get rained out this weekend.

G. Ed

Welcome from California.